Days 9 and 10. Lazy day 9! Waterfalls! Coffee! Butterflies!

Yesterday (day 9) was an extremely lazy day, so I didn't give it it's own blog entry. We had a disappointing start to the day with a trip to Santa Cruz. This area is around the corner from our hotel, and on paper sounds really nice. It has a long sandy beach, a collection of bars and restaurants right on the shore line, and a charming port and marina. In reality, it's actually more like a miniature Blackpool geared almost entirely towards tourists from the cruises that dock there. There was no cruise ship in port yesterday, so it was completely deserted! After this slightly (only slightly!) depressing morning, we decided to have some sunbathing time on the balcony and by the pool, which more than made up for it. We also had a delicious dinner in a restaurant called Onix in the evening, so not much to report but it was a great, chilled-out day.

On to the VERY exciting day 10! Yesterday we booked a tour to see the "Cascadas Magicas", the Magic Waterfalls! And magic they were. Andrew and I, along with 9 other intrepid explorers, were picked up this morning by our tour guide Fabian, and whisked off in the bus up in to the Mexican mountains. On the itinerary: a trip to see some (magical...) waterfalls in the jungle; a visit to a coffee plantation; and a walk around a butterfly sanctuary. We drove for nearly two hours through some spectacular scenery, and after a brief stop for a coffee (which I drank, and managed to convince everyone bar Andrew that I liked it) we got to the entrance to the trail leading us to the waterfalls. We were led along the river, all the while having our attention drawn to all manner of tropical flora and fauna by our guide, and arrived at the first waterfall and pool. Which we swam in! And it actually was magical - the water was crystal clear, and so refreshing. Even Andrew got his dookers on (brave soldier) and we splashed and swam for about an hour, all the while singing "Don't go chasing wat-er-falls..." After this we were taken a bit further downstream to a second much larger waterfall, which was even more breathtaking. There were caves behind the waterfall to explore, and a rope-swing, which Andrew had a go on and promptly lost his glasses. We did find them though (or rather Fabian-the-merman found them for us). We all spent ages here, as it was so beautiful. We had another Zapotec guide with us at the waterfall, a somewhat stern woman, who forcefully applied some sort of natural mineral-rich mud-pack to our faces, but being in such gorgeous surroundings we didn't care! It really was one of the best experiences of the honeymoon.

We dried off, and headed back to the van to be taken for a late lunch at the coffee plantation. It was very traditional fayre - tortillas, pork, rice, black beans, and chicken in a Oaxacan mole. Yummy. All washed down with a shot of mezcal and a bottle of Victoria beer. Followed, bizarrely, by some jelly for dessert, but whatevs! At our first pit stop here, we had been shown how it's all done at La Gloria plantation, and the coffee was really rich and delicious (honest!).

As an added extra to our tour, we were offered a walk around the butterfly enclosure and sanctuary they have at the plantation. We of course accepted (Andrew was beside himself!) and had a great time wandering round such an exotic place. Fabian translated for us, and he was really brilliant at pointing out everything - amongst the butterflies, it was such a delight to see things like cocoa plants, vanilla, lemongrass, coffee and pineapple just growing there naturally. At the end, we had another shot of mezcal, Andrew bought a kilo of coffee beans for about 3p, and we trundled back to the bus to start the journey home back through the Sierra Madre as the sun began to set. It was a wonderful trip.

And that's nearly it! We only have one more day left...(sob)....one more blog to go! xxx